Pages

Scribbles Blog Hop, Noland edition

It's time to get Old School, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, today is a day to celebrate that hallowed institution of the writing trade, the writing journal.

As part of the Scribbles Blog Hop, writers who use pen and paper for some (or all) of their writing are posting pictures of their journals, along with some behind-the-scenes discussion about how and why they use them. I have a few different notebooks, including a mini-sized Moleskine which I carry around in a shirt pocket. This, however, is my primary notebook for writing fiction:

It's a Black n' Red wirebound notebook. I've used others, bound and unbound. I like this model because the
covers are stiff and the wire rings allow it to lie open or be folded back flat.
That makes it convenient to write on in almost any kind of chair, bench
or barstool. It even works pretty well for writing standing up. The
8.5" x 11" ruled and perforated paper is 24 lb bond clean white, a good heavy paper that takes gel inks and fountain pen inks very well. It also holds pencil leads of 0.9, 0.7 or 0.5 mm without smudging.

Click to enlarge. Go ahead and read, I don't mind.

I use this notebook for writing exercises, such as the all-dialogue piece up above...

This is a scene from Just Enough Power.

... and for working on pieces like my sci-fi/noir serial, "Just Enough Power". The scene in the picture is from Episode 16. Just for fun, try reading this rough draft, then see what it eventually became. I like to write directly into my computer, but I also like the tactile feel of pen and paper, especially when I don't know yet what I'm trying to say.

More scratching than a poison ivy outbreak!

Sometimes, I have to scratch out a lot of text before I find the phrasing that works. In the scene above, I was trying to describe the despair among the workers on a moon base when faced with an almost certain death. The funny thing about this story? Almost all of this stuff got rewritten, re-rewritten, then cut from the final draft. Sic transit gloria fiction. Sometimes it takes longer to construct and then remove the scaffolding than it does to do the actual painting of the ceiling.

For more handwritten fun, read my #FridayFlash this week, "Pleasurebot, Parts 1 & 2". My handwriting isn't the best, but I think you'll be able to follow along.

~~ ~~~~ ~~

My thanks to Danielle and Anne for organizing the Scribbles Blog Hop! To see the writing journal/diaries/notebooks/notepads/etc. of other writers, and to learn a little about their approach to writing, check out the websites for all the participants, listed below.

@ annecmichaud: Agreed, the quality of the paper makes such a huge difference to me. Also, Anne, I believe that is the first time in my life anyone has said that my handwriting is neat. Dost thou mock? O.O

@ tammywrites: I use 0.5mm when I'm feeling fussy & precise, 0.7mm for editing and general fiction and 0.9mm for writing sex scenes.

@ J.A. Campbell: Thanks, Julie!

@ FARfetched: "Black & Red? You're qualified to live on Planet Georgia! ;-)" Um... what? I'm going to have to ask for some interpretation of that. I'm glad you liked "Pleasurebot", by the way. I wasn't quite sure where I was going on that one, other than the unintended consequences of people who think only of themselves who created a being that thinks only of others.

I like the look of the Black 'n Red, it's pretty, but I'm not crazy about hardbound journals. I just like the feel of softbound. It's a quirk with me. I'll give them another look, though. The paper sounds exquisite!

One of these days, I'm going to get educated on fountain pens and try and find myself one that a lefty can use without clawing up the paper.

I'm with you and your scratching! ...as bad as that sounds lol! It's good to go over something again and again, even if the page ends up looking like a bottle of ink spilled on it.

I think the reason I can only write poems by hand is because of the feel of a pen to paper. Things seem to flow more, especially if you're not sure where you're headed, as the ink flows. So, I agree :)

Thank you for leaving a comment. The staff at Landless will treat it with the same care that we would bestow on a newly hatched chick. By the way, no pressure or anything, but have you ever considered subscribing to Landless via RSS?

Welcome, Visitor!

This is my writing blog, which means you'll find fiction (short, medium and long), thoughts, ideas, experiments and other grammatically correct prose. The pages at the top will take you to my publications and samples of my writing. I'd love to know what you think, so feel free to leave comments on anything you read.

What I write: flash fiction, action/adventure, science fiction, horror and fantasy. I also write geeky, funny poetry, including the ever popular "Ode to the Semicolon"

5 Minute Fiction

Write fast... write well

#FridayFlash

Your weekly fiction hit

Search This Blog

Copyright Notice

I retain ownership and copyright on this blog and everything it contains, perpetually, on any and all media, and throughout this and every other universe. Feel free to link to this blog, but please get my permission to reproduce or make extensive quotations of the material you see here.

See that? I said "please". That's me being polite. I didn't have to do that. I could have said, "... or else I will use whatever eldritch magiks I can lay hands on so as to bind your plagiarist sins to your soul with bands of thorn and fire for the rest of all eternity."